(Ahmed Sheikh:) In many Arab states, the middle class is disappearing. The rich get richer and the poor get still poorer. Look at the schools in Jordan, Egypt or Morocco: You have up to 70 youngsters crammed together in a single classroom. How can teachers do their jobs in such circumstances? The public hospitals are also in a hopeless condition. These are just examples. They show how hopeless the situation is for us in the Middle East.

(Pierre Heumann:) Who is responsible for the situation?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most important reasons why these crises and problems continue to simmer. The day when Israel was founded created the basis for our problems. The West should finally come to understand this. Everything would be much calmer if the Palestinians were given their rights.

Another installment in tales of the Rebbe from Hell. Moshe (Moishe) Aryeh Friedman had to show up, of course at the Iranian Holocaust deniers conference. He was in good company with KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, Neturei Karteh members, bona fide regular neo-Nazis and Iranian wannabe neo-Nazi Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

I could have sworn that Ehud Olmert made a far ranging and courageous peace offer last month, but apparently it is not so. It must not be so, because those paragons of Middle East commentary Akiva Eldar and Yossi Parizky tell us it is not so, and everyone else seems to feel the same way. Who am I to contradict all those people?

Experiencing Middle East history is like living in a historical novel written by a demented and evil genius, or a bad episode of Star Gate in which the Gouald erase Michael Jackson's memories and implant different ones. That is because much of written Middle East history is a historical novel written by demented SOBs and imaginative script writers. The authors are op-ed columnists, ignorant celebrities like Jimmy Carter and imaginitive folks like Professors Mearsheimer and Walt. They write what they please, no matter what happens, and whatever they write becomes "facts" or as good as facts, replacing whatever it was that you had the illusion really happened, and in turn, creating more facts.

The drama of the century. Hordes of invisible Israel lobbyists -- evil people with horns and tails -- are perniciously swaying United States Middle East policy against the best interests of the United States, which are to allow lobbyists to accept the well-earned largess of the Gulf states and sell Israel down the river. Two unsung heroes, professors Walt and Mearsheimer toil day and night against incredible odds to uncover the cabal of the evil "Israel Lobby", showing how the diabolic "Israel Lobby" contrived to blame the 9-11 attacks on the hapless Muslims, showing how the sly "Israel Lobby" cast Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an enemy of the United States, just because he wanted to tell the truth about the Holocaust. Remember, the "Israel Lobby" killed Christ!

There is an old joke about the Englishman who explains that their way of answering the telephone is much better:

"We say 'Are you there?' If you're not, there's no sense in continuing the conversation, is there?":

The same logic underlies a popular refrain that seems to accompany every recent Israel bashing publicity gig. No matter that it is totally prima facie illogical, it is now a permanent repetitive feature of every article, book and interview relating to anyone who wants to criticize Israel. You can read it in the morning paper, you can hear it on the radio, and you can see it on television. Jimmy Carter does it. Professors Walt and Mearsheimer do it. Everyone's doing it.

Behold the mitigating effect of the ceasefire on the Palestinians: in a mass demonstration last Friday tens of thousands of Palestinians expressed their support of prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, and protested against a unity government which would not be lead by him. Haniyeh, currently in Iran on his first foreign trip, explained once more what Hamas is all about:

"The world arrogance (U.S.) and Zionists ... want us to recognize the usurpation of the Palestinian lands and stop jihad and resistance and accept the agreements reached with the Zionist enemies in the past," Haniyeh told thousands prayer worshippers in a speech at Tehran University. "I'm insisting from this podium that these issues won't materialize. We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem... The popular Palestinian government not only has not recognized the occupiers but also considers resistance the natural right of the Palestinian nation."